How to Make an Absynth Gangnam Style Synth

Although the sound in this tutorial is not an exact recreation of the popular synth this Absynth Gangnam Style lead gets you pretty close!

Every once in a while a song comes along that, for some reason, crosses just about every demographic boundary there is to become an overnight sensation. One of the most notable recently was Gangnam Style, and this quick lesson in how to make an Absynth Gangnam Style lead may have you thinking a little differently about this synth and the types of sounds you can make with it. Quite frankly, I’m not sure there are many sounds that you cannot make with it, compared to other synths out there. Absynth is capable of so much more than any one sound can ever portray. It’s nice to know that there are people out there using it to make fun pop synths as well a dense cinematic atmospheres and otherworldly soundscapes. Let’s see how this sound is made.

He starts building this Absynth Gangnam Style synth by setting the MIDI pattern in a DAW. This way the sound can come together while it plays through the infamous melody. This helps to ensure that the sound has the proper delivery for it’s intended use. Next, we set up the oscillator modules. Beginning with Oscillator A, a Sawtooth waveform is loaded and running in Single mode. For Oscillator B, a Sine waveform is loaded, running in Single mode, and dropped one octave with a total of two unison voices. Oscillator is running in Double mode, with a Sawtooth waveform loaded and the pitch increased three octaves. The total number of Unison Voices is also increased to four on Oscillator C and transposed by one octave up. This sound is also being modulated by a Sine wave thatis transposed up one octave. Make sure to adjust the oscillator envelopes to ensure the proper delivery.

The last big step in making this Absynth Gangnam Style synth is to apply the right amount of Glide. You can do this by moving to the Perform window and clicking on the Note tab. Here you can turn on the Glide feature and find the right balance. Of course there may be a small amount of tweaking left to get an exact match, but you have all the basic pieces in place and can easily begin to make this a sound of your own by changing up some waveforms ro adding a filter or effect. It’s a fun and catchy sound that is rather infectious!

Cheers,
OhmLab

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